I'm not into old ladies.

  The woman in front of me leaned forward, elbows on the desk, cleavage deliberately positioned in my line of sight. The sultry smile never wavered as she stared at me, seemingly trying to charm me.

  Unfortunately for her, no amount of makeup could hide the wrinkles under her expensive clothing. If I was older, maybe I would have a reaction, but I hadn't reached that level of desperation yet.

  If my lack of interest bothered her, she certainly didn't show it. She just continued talking as though it was the most natural thing in the world.

  "So, jeune homme. Who do you work for? City guard? A rival establishment? Perhaps Murphy's finally decided to kill me after all these years?"

  I kept my expression neutral, voice pitched carefully.

  "I serve the Empire. That's all you need to know."

  Her smile widened as she clasped her hands, seemingly happy at the news.

  "Good. That's exactly what I wanted to hear."

  She bowed lightly in her chair, elegant as it was performative.

  "I am Madame Monique. La Madame de Maison de Plaisir Masqué. It is a pleasure."

  She reached for her pipe, taking a slow draw before continuing.

  "I would like to make a deal. You do something for me, and I'll do something for you."

  She layered more tobacco into her pipe before continuing.

  "Control a man's body, and you may influence his mind. My girls hear many things, many things that may prove useful to you, mon chéri jeune homme."

  I watched her without moving an inch. I wanted to make it clear I wasn't here to play any games.

  "And what things might that be?"

  Madame Monique smiled, as if she knew exactly why I had come.

  "I know where the girl is. Annie, I believe."

  I didn't physically react, but mentally I was already calculating.

  So it's obvious? It seems more people know about this than I thought.

  Question is, how much does this madam actually know?

  "Where?"

  "In possession of the Murphy Family, and by family, I assume you know what I mean." She smiled casually. "Coincidentally, they're the same family I pay protection money to."

  Her elegant composure cracked slightly, anger bleeding through. "Whatever arrangement that is. They come here, rough up my girls, act like they own the place, and demand money and 'services' for their so-called protection."

  She waved her hand dismissively, the pipe trailing smoke. "Protection from what, I ask? The only predators I see are the ones demanding payment. For what? The privilege of running my business in peace?"

  I watched her rant, keeping my face impassive.

  Her physical elegance is only matched by her verbal barbarity.

  She finally noticed my silence. A sigh escaped her lips as she leaned back in her chair. "Not much of a talker, are you, boy? No matter." Her eyes glinted with calculation. "You probably see what I'm getting at here, don't you?"

  "What do you want?"

  "Good. You're easy to talk to. Refreshing." She smiled, genuine pleasure crossing her features. "I want a relationship of equals between us. I no longer want to be controlled by thugs, and I am sure your organisation wouldn't mind having an extra ear. Sounds good, non?"

  She waited for my response, but received none. She sighed lightly before continuing.

  "But first, to cement our relationship, I want the leader of the Murphy's families head. Simple as that. Since you're working for the Empire, I'm sure cleaning up its streets wouldn't be a bad byproduct of your investigation?" She paused.. "Anyway, I assure you Annie's going nowhere. She's not Murphy's merchandise, after all - he just manages her. Keeps her like a prized pet."

  I noted down what she said.

  Not the Murphy's family's merchandise? And it seems not hers either.

  To whom does she belong?

  Whoever they are, they must have connections to heretical elements in the Eleventh District.

  I considered the situation.

  Torturing this woman for information was out of the question. She had the unspoken backing of nobles - wealthy men who'd panic if their discreet entertainment was threatened. The establishment itself wasn't treasonous, just hedonistic. The Empire wouldn't care about nobles visiting brothels. If some high-ranking official frequented this place, they could exert pressure on the Inquisition.

  Not enough to stop us. Nothing could truly stop the Inquisition when we had cause.

  But enough to make it annoying. Paperwork, delays, and questions from superiors who'd rather not have noble families making complaints.

  Better to have her cooperation.

  After all, it was just some more men I had to kill.

  And since they ran a crime family, I wouldn't exactly lose sleep.

  I haven't heard of the Murphys, so they must not be too big.

  Should be easy enough.

  "Okay."

  She smiled and leaned back, satisfaction evident from her gleaming eyes covered by expensive mascara.

  "Good. I've been waiting quite a while for one of the Empire's agencies to come sort out my problem. Do you know how much money I've lost to those thugs? How many girls have left because they felt unsafe? Merde, it's been hard on them."

  She pulled out a notepad, scribbling an address with elegant penmanship. "My girls have endured enough under these brutes. This ends tonight, yes?"

  She held out the note toward me.

  Before I could grab it, the doors behind me burst open.

  I spun.

  One of the thugs from outside had Dominic by the throat, pistol pressed against his temple. The other brandished a large knife, face twisted in aggressive certainty.

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  "On your knees!" The one with the knife pointed it at me, smiling as though he had already won. "Now! Or your friend's brains decorate the carpet!"

  Dominic's eyes were squeezed shut, his voice quivering. "I'm not looking. I promise I'm not looking-"

  The madame sighed with some surprise, eyeing me with cautious curiousity. "Oh? I wonder how you'll handle this?" She looked at Dominic with faint pity in her eyes, "I'm sorry about your friend, but killing them is our only choice. Otherwise, all three of us are dead."

  I clicked my tongue in annoyance.

  Screw this.

  I blinked.

  Reality folded. The world compressed and expanded in the space between heartbeats.

  I materialised behind the man holding the pistol, hand already moving. I yanked the gun from his unprepared grip with practised efficiency - he'd been focused on where I was, he hadn't registered my disappearance until it was too late.

  The weapon came free quickly.

  I raised it.

  Fired.

  The man holding Dominic dropped like a puppet with its strings cut, a neat hole punched through the back of his head. Blood sprayed across the floor to the madame's desk as the body fell.

  The other thug barely had time to register what happened before I put a bullet through his kneecap.

  He went down screaming, knife clattering from his grip as both hands flew to his shattered leg.

  Dominic stood frozen, eyes still squeezed shut, covered in someone else's blood.

  I turned to Madame Monique. "The paper."

  She handed it over with utter shock covered across her face. It was the first time I had seen her lose her composure.

  Fear quickly became reignation and determination as she rubbed her head, like she had just recieved a massive headache.

  "Merde, it seems I've entered a deal with the Empire's devils.

  Without looking back at me, she loaded even more tobacco in her pipe, as if the situation were too stressful to bear.

  "I was hoping you were merely an undercover city guard. But it's no matter." She looked at me now, smiling with newfound confidence, "The Inquisition would love to have another ear, wouldn't they?"

  She waved at the crying man on the ground. "I've included addresses and names of all three brothers heading the Murphy Family. Question him as much as you like to see if I'm telling the truth."

  I glanced at the note.

  Then I looked at Dominic.

  He'd turned away from the bodies, but his shoulders were shaking. Small tremors that suggested he was fighting down nausea. From stress or the stench of death, I couldn't tell.

  "Block your ears," I said quietly.

  He obeyed immediately, hands clamping over his ears hard enough to hurt.

  I approached the man on the ground, who lay clutching his destroyed knee, face twisted in agony but eyes still defiant. Blood pooled beneath him, soaking into expensive carpet.

  "Tell me where the names and locations of the Murphy Families leaders," I said, voice flat. "Or your other knee goes."

  "Fuck you." The words came through gritted teeth. "You're going to kill me anyway-"

  I shot his other kneecap.

  The scream that tore from his throat was primal. Guttural. The sound of a man experiencing pain beyond his ability to process.

  I dropped into a squat beside him, close enough to smell the copper tang of blood and the sharper stench of fear-sweat.

  Close enough so he could hear my genuine voice, unchanged and poisonous.

  "I have no mercy for scum like you," I whispered, picking up the dropped knife from the floor. The blade caught firelight, gleaming. "I am going to kill you. That's certain. But there are better ways to die than others."

  His defiance crumbled. Tears streamed down his face as words spilled out between sobs - names, addresses, matching Monique's note, confirmation she'd been telling the truth.

  "Please-" he started.

  I shot him in the head before he could finish begging.

  The body slumped, finally still.

  I stood, tapping Dominic on the shoulder.

  He jumped, hands still over his ears.

  I gestured toward the window. "We're leaving. Now."

  He lowered his hands slowly, a wet patch forming around his neck.

  Madame Monique was already moving, crossing to the corpses with purpose. She knelt beside them, hands dipping into pooling blood. Then she smeared it across her face, her clothes, creating the appearance of violence done to her rather than witnessed by her.

  She caught me staring.

  "You better hurry, darling." She smiled through the blood mask, somehow making even that look elegant. "Those brutes at the front door probably called more of Murphy's pigs. Jump out my window - it's only two stories. You'll survive."

  I nodded once.

  "You'll have their heads by tomorow night."

  I looked at Dominic.

  "D. Follow me. Eyes down."

  He obeyed, moving like a man in a trance.

  I crossed to the window and pushed it open. Cold night air rushed in, carrying the sounds of the city below.

  The drop was manageable. Maybe fifteen feet to a lower roof, then another jump to the alley.

  "Jump with your eyes closed," I told Dominic. "Trust me."

  He hesitated.

  Voices echoed in the hallway outside - angry, getting closer.

  He nodded once and closed his eyes.

  I glanced back at Madame Monique, who now looked like a victim of brutal assault rather than a co-conspirator. Blood streaked her white hair, her fine clothes. She waved at me with one crimson-stained hand.

  "This is weirdly romantic, is it not?"

  I shivered, despite my igdination.

  Creepy.

  Before I could react, I head someone curse.

  It was Dominic.

  He'd actually jumped.

  Crazy bastard didn't even need me to push him.

  I blinked, reality folding around me.

  I materialized on the ground just in time to catch Dominic mid-fall, absorbing the impact with bent knees and divine-enhanced strength. We both stumbled but stayed upright.

  Above us, Madame Monique's voice rang out, perfectly pitched with outrage. "They're escaping! Those voyou jumped out the window!"

  Playing her part flawlessly.

  I set Dominic on his feet and slapped his back. "Run. I've only got a couple bullets left."

  He led the way, sprinting down the alley with surprising speed for someone who'd just been held at gunpoint.

  A face appeared at the window above.

  I raised my stolen pistol and fired.

  The shot went wide, but it was close enough to make the thug duck back inside, buying us precious seconds.

  We ran.

  Through alleys that stank of rotting garbage and human waste. Past empty market stalls, their sheet coverings flapping in the wind. Through streets where honest people had already retreated behind locked doors, leaving only predators and prey to navigate the darkness.

  Behind us, voices shouted. Boots pounded cobblestone.

  The Murphy's Families men, mobilising faster than expected.

  We darted left into a narrow passage between buildings.

  Two figures blocked the far end.

  Thugs, attracted by the noise. They saw us and opened their mouths to shout for backup-

  But they were silenced before a word could leave their mouths.

  Someone dropped from above.

  A black-cloaked figure descended like death itself, landing between the two thugs with inhuman grace.

  Lightning crackled.

  Yellow electricity arced along a blade that moved faster than thought. The first thug barely registered the threat before the sword impaled him from crown to jaw, the tip erupting from beneath his chin in a spray of blood and brain matter.

  The blade withdrew and swept horizontally in the same fluid motion.

  The second thug's head left his shoulders, tumbling through the air before hitting the ground with a wet thump. His body stood for a heartbeat longer before collapsing.

  Alice stood between the corpses, sword still crackling with residual lightning, utterly silent.

  "Thank you, A." I kept running past her, trusting her to handle any pursuit.

  She nodded once, already turning to watch our back trail.

  Another figure dropped beside me as I ran - Leonard, landing with the controlled grace of ice-enhanced movement.

  He tossed me my equipment without breaking stride.

  I caught the bundle and started changing while still moving, shedding the noble's clothes and pulling on my Inquisitor gear with practiced efficiency. Mask. Cloak. Blade mechanism clicking into place along my forearm.

  Dominic did the same beside me, fumbling with his own clothes but managing to keep pace.

  The stolen garments and masks went into a pile at the next corner. Leonard produced a small vial, splashing it across the evidence. A match followed.

  The clothes caught fire immediately, flames consuming silk and secrets alike.

  I sealed my mask in place, feeling the vox mechanisms engage. The world took on a slightly different quality through the tinted lenses - sharper, more focused.

  I turned to Dominic.

  He was vomiting against a wall, one hand braced for support while his body expelled everything in violent heaves.

  I approached, placing a hand on his shoulder.

  "Good job. Your service to the Empire has been noted."

  He looked up, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. A weak smile crossed his pale face. "Don't worry about me, milord. I'm not vomiting from the smell of death." He spat, clearing his mouth. "I've seen plenty of corpses in my line of work. It's more... the stress. Knowing my head was going to leave my shoulders if I looked the wrong way. Puts a toll on a man, you know?"

  I nodded. "You'll be properly compensated. And your services may be required again as this investigation continues."

  I looked at Leonard and Alice. "We're done here."

  They both vanished without acknowledgment.

  I turned back to Dominic. "Follow this alley to the main street. Go home. Lay low for a day or two. Don't go to work. Don't talk to anyone about tonight."

  He nodded, still looking queasy.

  "Someone will contact you when we need you again."

  I started to leave.

  "Milord?"

  I paused.

  Dominic was still bent over, one hand on the wall for support, but he'd turned to look at me. That weak smile still played at his lips.

  "The pay better be worth it."

  I allowed myself a small smile beneath my mask.

  "It will be."

  Then I blinked, leaving him alone in the alley.

  I reappeared on a rooftop three blocks away, where Leonard and Alice already waited.

  Below us, Murphy's gang still searched the streets, chasing ghosts and shadows.

  I pulled out Madame Monique's note, reading the addresses and names one more time.

  I moved my mask to the side, allowing myself a short cigarette break as I gazed onto the white moon.

  Tomorrow night, we visit the Murphy Family.

  I felt my bodies weakness. From divine exhaustion, or lack of sleep. I couldn't tell.

  But for now, it's time to sleep.